Pakistani couple shows solidarity with China against COVID-19

BEIJING: Couple volunteer from foreign countries including Pakistan expressed solidarity with China against COVID-19, hoping that the World’s community would take benefit of Chinese experience of controlling the deadly virus, says a report published by China Economic Net (CEN).

“Diseases do not respect borders. We don’t care about WHY, WHO or WHERE; we only care about saving lives,” said Pakistani Hamad Abdul Zahir and Mauritian Sumayyah Hosany, a married couple who worked as doctors at Panhealth Medical Center and volunteered in China's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic in Wenzhou, China.

Back in February, Hamad Abdul Zahir and Sumayyah Hosany chose to stay in China when the pandemic situation was more than serious. Seeing loads of exaggerated and incorrect information online, their parents were really worried, wanting them to stay home.

However, they explained the measures taken by the Chinese government, the protective gears given to them by the hospital and the ground reality of the epidemic, so their parents were reassured and encouraged them to keep doing their job.

As they put it, “it was a very normal reaction for them. First of all, we are doctors; second, we have lived in China for more than 10 years and we are proud to call China our second home. We wanted to help with anything that we could.”

Hamad Abdul Zahir and Sumayyah Hosany told CEN that they were so awed by the spontaneous and drastic measures taken by the Chinese government. It made all the differences in controlling the epidemic in China and buying the world enough time to put the adequate measures in place.

They also reckoned that the Chinese people impressed them greatly by the way they cooperated with the local authorities, the way they respected the lockdown and the way they followed the rules.

Days of volunteers were never an easy one. Around 5,000-7,000 cars passed the check point per day before the lockdown was imposed, and they had to do temperature checks and ask basic questions relating to living in Wuhan and the deadly virus.

About their experience of the prevention and control of COVID-19, they mentioned that they mostly used social media like Facebook and Instagram to keep their families and friends updated about the latest COVID-19 researches. Besides, they helped friends abroad who are doctors by sharing experiences relaying the Chinese CDC guidelines along with the established drug regimes used in the hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients in China. —INP